The world has changed in remarkable ways since, as the newly
elected Director-General of FAO, I first prepared the foreword to The State
of Food and Agriculture 1975. On that occasion, and for each of the 17
issues that were to follow, we focused on the current outlook, pointing out
important improvements and highlighting the many alarming aspects of the world's
situation - food insecurity, poverty and environmental degradation, to name a
few. In this foreword, I wish to break with that tradition and share some
reflections and thoughts about the past.

As an international civil servant who has served FAO for well
over 30 years, I recall the heady and optimistic days of the early 1960s when
colonial empires were dissolving and new nations were springing to life in every
part of the world. Humankind seemed then to be on the verge of a technological
and scientific breakthrough, with formidable progress being achieved in the
fields of space exploration, data processing, telecommunications and - most
important for agriculture - the green revolution which was under way in
Asia.

It was a time when the Cold War was also at its height, but
great faith was being put on multilateral action to promote development and
economic growth and to maintain peace. I decided to join FAO not only because
the United Nations system was being called on as the major conduit of
high-quality technical and material assistance to developing countries, but
mainly because FAO was the first expression of that postwar idealism that was
soon to be embodied in the UN Charter as a global response to the cry for social
justice for the underprivileged, the poor and the hungry.

During my early years with FAO - in fact, throughout the 1960s
-economic growth and improved living standards in the developing countries were
the rule, not the exception. Primary product prices were relatively stable,
official development assistance was increasing in real terms over time and the
presence of large stocks of cereals was taken for granted.

This relatively stable era for most developing countries came
to an end with the oil price increases of 1972-73 and the fall in grain
production in the main producing areas in 1972. Import needs rose, and grain
surpluses disappeared almost overnight. A buying panic ensued, with cereal
prices more than tripling and fertilizer prices more than quadrupling.
Oil-importing developing countries turned to official and private financial
markets to pay for imports and fill current account gaps. In 1975 when I was
first elected Director-General, the world was in the midst of a major food
crisis and a rapidly emerging debt crisis.

As the world recession unfolded in the early 1980s, the debt
crisis matured. Economic recession and rising protectionism sharply reduced
import demand. The terms of trade collapsed as oil and oil-based energy prices
initially soared and prices of other commodities fell. The eagerness of the
commercial banks to grant loans turned to an eagerness for repayment, and
interest rates increased sharply, resulting in burgeoning debt-service payments.
Developing countries faced a profoundly different world economic environment
where repaying loans dominated both discussions and decisions on how economic
adjustment should proceed during the 1980s.

After three postwar decades that involved grappling with
economic expansion, the international development agencies, policy-makers and
theoreticians had become accustomed to taking growth for granted and to debating
how it could be optimized in terms of its rate and distribution. It was not
expected that most developing countries would be implementing austerity
programmes amid severe policy constraints caused by debt-service burdens, fiscal
imbalances and balance-of-payments problems, to say nothing of civil
strife.

Thus, the 1980s introduced a grimmer period of declining per
caput incomes in most developing countries. Development assistance gradually
shifted away from projects and the direct creation of infrastructure, and moved
instead towards conditional lending that required changes in economic policy and
management as well as institutional reforms. During the 1980s, these
"stabilization" and "structural adjustment" programmes became commonplace.
Ironically, while the developing countries came under heavy external pressure to
adopt adjustment policies (devaluation, fiscal and monetary restraint, market
and trade liberalization), most of the OECD countries became increasingly
protectionist and pursued unsustainable financial policies.

For many developing countries, the 1980s was certainly a
period of frustration. For others, including the most populous ones, the decade
saw periods of remarkable progress. But all of us entered the 1990s with a
renewed awareness that development should first and foremost emphasize its human
dimensions. This renewed emphasis has had a number of important implications.
First, recognition dawned of the need to "adjust adjustment" in such a way as to
attenuate its recessive effects and to alleviate acute disparities and social
hardship. Second, the importance of people's knowledge, skills and aptitudes,
together with the strengthening of appropriate institutions and mechanisms that
would enable them to participate in the development process, was recognized.
Third, the need to enhance food security and nutrition policies and programmes
became apparent, with the recognition that food access often has more to do with
incomes than with supply. Finally, we began to focus collectively on improving
the sustainability of agriculture and rural development.

Although we are no longer haunted by the imminent risk of
nuclear conflagration, sadly, many regions of the world are as turbulent today
as they were in 1975. Furthermore, many industrial countries are grappling with
crucial political choices regarding national and regional issues. West European
countries are pursuing efforts aimed at closer integration despite mounting and
unforeseen political and economic difficulties. Market-oriented transformations
are continuing in Eastern Europe and the former USSR in the context of grave
economic and social disruptions, plummeting agricultural and industrial
production; and ethnic and political tensions which, in former Yugoslavia, SFR,
have degenerated into a devastating armed conflict.

These events have taken place in an overall climate of
economic malaise. The much-awaited and repeatedly predicted revival of economic
growth in the industrial countries has remained elusive. Instead, rising
unemployment, unstable financial and foreign exchange markets and severe
budgetary difficulties in several industrial countries have continued to exert
their destabilizing influence worldwide.

Yet, there are many reasons to be optimistic when drawing
lessons from past experiences. Despite the recent and dramatic changes in the
political and economic environment, the rivalries among power blocs and the
rhetorical exchanges of accusations across ideological divides have ceased and
have been replaced by a renewed confidence in the ability of the UN system to
find mutually agreed solutions to global problems.

On the whole, developing countries have much to be proud of
with respect to their substantial progress in life expectancy, child mortality
and educational attainment. Likewise, FAO can take pride in its efforts to help
the developing countries improve their agricultural sectors and enhance rural
welfare. Even though the world has about 1.5 billion more inhabitants than when
I took office, the global community has proved its ability to provide sufficient
food and to avert food crises brought about by natural disasters. We have
achieved substantial increases in per caput food supplies worldwide and many of
today's developing countries now cover a significant proportion of their
populations' food needs.

Today we are producing more cereals on less land than we did
in 1975 -rice and wheat yields have increased by nearly 50 percent, maize yields
by more than 35 percent and pulses by 30 percent. Similar gains have been made
in livestock, forestry and fisheries. Aquaculture, for instance, was only an
infant industry 20 years ago but, today, it provides food, jobs and income for
millions.

These significant achievements have meant that world food
production has outpaced population growth and that per caput calorie consumption
is approximately 10 percent above what it was in the mid-1970s.

Our changing world is always producing surprises, both good
and bad. And while we may not be entirely able to determine the course of
events, it remains my conviction that we can at least have a hand in influencing
it. Indeed, in some instances, our action can make the difference between
survival and death, welfare and destitution and progress and frustration for
millions of people. This is true for Africa, as it is for other developing
country regions around the world.

Perhaps the most critical issues today are the paucity of
financial resources to fuel the development process and the consequent need to
generate the necessary political commitment for increasing and channelling these
resources so as to improve the well-being of the poor relative to the rich. The
widely documented gap between the poor and the rich continues to grow in almost
every nation of the world - a situation that can only lead to even greater
tensions and turmoil.

Not long ago it was hoped that a substantial share of the
so-called peace dividend would be allocated for development. Instead, it has
been absorbed by peacemaking, peace-keeping, emergency relief, unification,
domestic programmes, reductions in fiscal imbalances on national accounts, and
other uses. The key to relief from these demands, and the major ingredient for
avoiding further social disintegration and violence, is an acceleration in the
development process and, in the poorer countries of the world, sustainable
agriculture and rural development.

It is my hope that the international community will recognize
that equitable and sustainable development is the only way to avoid massive
outlays for peacemaking, peace-keeping and relief, and that it will consequently
rise to the challenge presented by the current situation.